"Our enemies won't sit idly by, waiting for winter to end before strutting right up to our trenches."
"They're marauders; ambush is what they do best. If they move fast, their army might march on the northern outskirts of Qingquan City the moment this blizzard clears."
"My assessment is... the first ten days of January, perhaps even on New Year's Day itself."
After reviewing the new recruits of the guard team, Chu Guang returned with Liu Ding, Wrench, and Vannus to the guard team's garrison at Changjiu Farm.
A bunker-style temporary command post stood here, buried under a thick mantle of snow, accessible only through a single trench tunnel.
Among the supplies seized from the marauders last time were a full hundred 100mm artillery shells.
Each shell weighed twenty kilograms, containing a three-kilogram warhead packed with a blend of TNT and RDX.
A single hit from one of these would pack terrifying power.
Though they didn't know how many howitzers the enemy possessed, the shells alone were enough to put Chu Guang on high alert.
These marauders were not going to be an easy fight!
At present, thanks to data dug up by the forum veterans and continuous experimentation by thirty production-class players with chemical engineering backgrounds, Shelter 404 had successfully unlocked the production process for RDX, but unfortunately, the yield remained quite low.
Developing reliable heavy fire support before New Year's Day was simply asking too much. They had to resolve not only gun barrel manufacturing, but also numerous challenges including ballistics—and those depended far more on practical combat experience than on theoretical knowledge.
Rather than counting on heavy artillery in the war against the Bone Chewer Tribe, they were better off pinning their hopes on Mosquito's Flying Thunder rockets; that might actually be more realistic.
Wrench and Liu Ding exchanged an involuntary glance, looking slightly baffled.
*What's New Year's Day?*
Vannus didn't know what New Year's Day meant either, but his attention wasn't on such trivial details; it was fixed on Chu Guang's prediction of the marauders' next offensive.
Staring at the paper map hanging on the command post wall, Vannus pondered for a long time before speaking.
"If it were me, I would launch the offensive in mid-January."
Chu Guang looked at him. "Your reasoning?"
"Prudence," Vannus said. "Snow on the roads will make movement nearly impossible for trucks, putting far more strain on logistics than you'd imagine. As a frontline commander, I would first have to assume you've already evacuated every raid-worthy survivor settlement in the northern suburbs, built solid fortifications, and resolved to fight us to the death."
"By then, our forces wouldn't be able to forage any local resources. We would have to rely entirely on carried supplies to fight a prolonged siege against fortified positions."
Fixing his gaze on an abandoned urban sector to the northeast, Vannus continued.
"I would first establish an operating base, deploy artillery, and then dispatch motorized units to harass your positions using our vehicle advantage, spotting for artillery bombardments. Repeated strikes would soften your defenses, and finally, I'd concentrate forces to strike from multiple directions simultaneously."
Liu Ding and Wrench held their breath.
If the marauders truly operated that way, the coming battle would undoubtedly be far trickier than anticipated.
Chu Guang nodded thoughtfully.
"That sounds like a solid plan."
Naturally, he had never expected the Bone Chewer Tribe to act like the Bloodhand Clan, foolishly charging into his positions on suicide runs only to be mowed down like wheat by players crouched in trenches with automatic weapons.
Those goblin-like creatures were exceedingly cunning, especially now that they had adopted Legion tactics—even if only a small fraction.
However...
Too bad for them, they were up against him.
A battle of sustained attrition might work against others, but using it against players who gained a fresh life every three days was pure fantasy.
He only needed to hold the new industrial zone nestled within the abandoned urban area and ensure a steady supply of weapons and equipment. The marauders would soon learn the nightmare of being dominated by an immortal undead legion.
If push came to shove, he could even abandon the large factories, break down the production machinery into portable units, withdraw into the endless sea of ruins, and let the players leverage their individual combat prowess in urban guerrilla warfare against the marauders.
Noticing that Chu Guang's expression remained far from grim, Vannus raised an eyebrow in slight surprise.
"It seems you already have an idea, sir?"
"You could say that."
"I'm rather curious. Would you mind sharing?"
Chu Guang gave a faint smile.
"There aren't many days left anyway. When the time comes, you'll see for yourself."
He had plenty of potential approaches, but battlefield situations shifted in the blink of an eye, and he couldn't say for certain which plan he would ultimately deploy.
After all, it depended on what cards the other side played.
Vannus didn't pry further, merely shrugging his shoulders.
At the end of the day, his status was only that of a prisoner of war.
If Chu Guang asked for his counsel, he would state his thoughts and offer recommendations. But if Chu Guang had no intention of telling him, his position didn't warrant pressing the matter.
Still, Vannus couldn't help wondering: *What does this man intend to do?*
The enemy possessed 100mm howitzers, and no one knew how many.
On top of that, the marauders numbered over a thousand, with an unknown vehicle count, holding an overwhelming advantage in both gear and troop strength.
They weren't ordinary marauders. After their two previous clashes, the man before him surely knew that.
The odds of victory were genuinely slim.
Yet that completely unflappable expression of his was truly impossible to read.
Just then, a knock sounded at the door of the temporary command post.
Upon receiving permission, a guard in a black greatcoat stepped inside, resting his right fist against his chest in a military salute.
"Report!"
Chu Guang kept it brief. "Speak."
The guard said, "Our scouts dispatched to explore north spotted a marauder patrol in Yuanxi Town, due north of Changjiu Farm. They appear to be from the Bone Chewer Tribe!"
Surprise flickered across Chu Guang's face at the report, and he immediately turned toward the map on the wall.
Yuanxi Town was roughly twenty kilometers from Changjiu Farm, bordering the northern side of Yumu District. Administratively, it was the southernmost township under Xizhou City, lying close to the western district of Tianshui City.
That distance couldn't be called very close, but it was certainly not far.
Yet what puzzled Chu Guang was why marauders would appear in Yuanxi Town.
Extrapolating from their marching route, their encampment should clearly have been northeast of Qingquan City, in the southern parts of Tianshui City.
Could they have...
Relocated?
Staring at the map, Vannus's expression gradually grew solemn.
"Administrator, though I hate to say it... we may have to prepare for the worst."
Inside the command post, four pairs of eyes snapped toward him in unison.
Chu Guang had already vaguely guessed something, but he didn't interrupt, waiting for him to continue.
Vannus paused, drew a quiet breath, and exhaled a slow plume of white mist.
"The force due north of us and the marauders in the southern suburbs of Tianshui City are clearly not the same group."
"What you will be facing is very likely not just a single thousand-man force..."
"It's two."
***
[Wartime Regulations: Day 14]
After glancing at the info on his VM to confirm, Lao Bai casually wiped away the slime and devil moth wing fuzz stuck to his steel bracers.
"Floor B9 was surprisingly easy to clear."
"Well, this is where the reactor is located. There aren't any incubation vats, and the floor area isn't very large," Fang Chang said offhandedly, stowing his mechanical compound bow.
Four days ago, his level had reached LV10, making him the server's very first Agility-type Awakened.
Just as Lao Bai had guessed, his primary attribute increased by five points, while the other four secondary attributes each gained one point.
With an Agility score as high as seventeen points, his reaction speed and dynamic visual tracking were nearly triple those of an ordinary human.
And the talent he unlocked satisfied him immensely—something akin to Bullet Time from Max Payne!
This didn't mean he could move infinitely faster, but rather that, through his Agility attribute scaling, he could perceive everything around him in slow motion whenever he concentrated intensely.
Perhaps if his Agility rose high enough, the day might come when he could clearly track the trajectory of incoming bullets.
In any case, for an archer, this was nothing short of a divine skill.
*Praise the devs!*
Ever since unlocking Bullet Time, even though his teammates hadn't noticed much of a difference, Fang Chang felt like he was invincible.
The mission was wrapping up.
Carefully checking every blind corner on Floor B9, Lao Bai used his melee dagger to finish off any devil moths that weren't entirely dead.
Trailing behind and finding no opportunity to fire, Ye Shi chimed in with idle chatter.
"What do you guys think will be on Floor B10?"
Walking beside him, Kuang Feng considered it. "No idea, but one thing's for sure: the devil moth broodmother must be down there."
Ye Shi: "Will there be moths the size of mutants?"
Kuang Feng: "From an evolutionary standpoint, that's unrealistic. Excessively large body sizes aren't viable for arthropods... at least under Earth's oxygen levels and gravitational environment. Still, that's not absolute. The wasteland isn't a normal natural selection environment to begin with, not to mention this is a game."
At this point, Kuang Feng suddenly paused, lifting his head to look ahead.
"Though... this game is ridiculously realistic."
The group stopped in their tracks. Before them stood a sealed blast door.
Judging by markings similar to the Floor B3 power room and the icons on the VM map, this was indeed the reactor chamber.
Through a narrow, transparent viewing slit, Kuang Feng could see the cylindrical reactor inside the room.
A reactor still running after two centuries.
Even in a game, this was utterly incredible.
By the looks of it, it certainly wasn't just boiling water.
"Is that a tokamak or a stellarator?" Ye Shi asked curiously.
Kuang Feng thought for a moment and shook his head.
"Neither... It looks completely unassuming from the outside, even smaller than a fission reactor."
*Far smaller, in fact!*
Ye Shi chuckled. "Maybe the devs just got lazy and didn't want to make up more lore... I thought it'd be designed to look way cooler."
"Designing it this way actually makes sense. In the pre-war society described by the game's lore, controlled nuclear fusion had not only replaced fossil fuels, but had even supplanted chemical batteries in certain fields. Their grasp of energy technology is a black box to us, so presenting it in a form far more compact and streamlined than we imagine is actually far more reasonable."
Kuang Feng was genuinely curious what kind of conceptual leap the developers had used, as this touched on his field of expertise.
However, he was a rational person; he wouldn't risk his teammates' lives out of curiosity.
Besides, he lacked the means to breach it anyway.
Breaching a first wall capable of stopping neutron radiation would require at least several hundred kilograms of explosives.
This thing wasn't made of tofu.
The alloy door leading into the reactor chamber alone was at least half a meter thick, to say nothing of the walls, which were fully integrated into the load-bearing structure.
Collapsing the entire floor might not even scratch the reactor's outer casing.
Right then, Kuang Feng felt a faint sting between his brows, followed by a burning sensation that surged through his entire body, causing him to knit his brow.
Standing beside him, Ye Shi seemed to experience the exact same reaction, letting out an exaggerated squawk as he grabbed his right arm.
"Holy crap, my power of kings! That boiling sensation... it's coming!"
Fang Chang gave him a deadpan look.
"Can you please act normal for once in your life?"
Stepping up to steady Ye Shi, Lao Bai noticed Kuang Feng's state at the same time. He blinked, his face breaking into instant delight.
"Holy shit, two of us awakened today!"
The server's first Intelligence-type and Perception-type players, born at the exact same time!
The entire Ox and Horse Squad had made it into the hall of fame!
This achievement was legendary!
Excitement was written all over Fang Chang's face as well, though with them currently standing inside a moth nest, it clearly wasn't the time to celebrate.
"Awesome! Anyway, let's head back and save our progress first."
It was safe to predict that the forum was going to blow up again today.
Following Fang Chang's suggestion, the Ox and Horse Squad tagged the door leading to the next floor, then left the greenhouse ruins to make their way back toward the outpost.
After escorting his teammates to the outpost gate, Lao Bai stopped beneath the concrete wall.
"Before logging off, I plan to hit the industrial zone. You guys go ahead and save."
Ye Shi asked curiously, "The industrial zone? What for?"
Lao Bai smiled. "I've been using the LD-47 for a while now, but I always feel like it doesn't play to the strengths of a Strength-type build. I want to check out the steel mill and see if I can custom-order a couple of pieces suited for Strength builds to boost our squad's firepower."
Ye Shi and Kuang Feng traded a look.
Fang Chang understood what he was getting at, and his interest was immediately piqued.
"I'll come with you! I don't have anything to do after logging off anyway."
Lao Bai gave a hearty laugh. "All right, let's roll!"
***
New industrial zone.
At the entrance of the No. 81 Steel Mill, as soon as Lao Bai and Fang Chang walked through the doors, they saw Midnight Chicken Slaughter locked in discussion with Brother Toilet Cable.
"I want a chainsaw. Can you make one?"
"Make one with what? Where am I supposed to find you a battery?"
Facing Brother Toilet Cable's eye-roll, Midnight Chicken Slaughter refused to give up. "A gas-powered one works too."
Hearing such a casual remark, Brother Toilet Cable nearly spat blood, firing back with a soul-searching question.
"Do you have a diesel engine? Do you have diesel?"
Not being able to find a single diesel engine across the entire wasteland was utterly absurd.
He had spent the past few days nursing massive headaches over this very issue.
Midnight Chicken Slaughter paused, not having realized it would be so troublesome, and scratched the back of his head.
"Then... I guess I'll just buy an axe."
"..."
Brother Toilet Cable wore a look of utter defeat.
A wooden-handled hatchet went for a measly ten silver coins, and that was after the price hike.
After deducting raw materials, labor, electricity, and the rest, the profit margin was barely ten percent—a single silver coin.
Selling axes was worse than cranking out a few more bullets!
"I genuinely advise you to give some thought to modern gear."
Just as he was about to make up an excuse to brush off Brother Chicken Slaughter, he spotted Lao Bai and Fang Chang at the doorway.
His eyes lit up instantly, and Brother Toilet Cable immediately ditched Midnight Chicken Slaughter to jog toward the two.
"Hey, Brother Bai, Brother Fang Chang! What brings you two over here?"
These were big spenders!
Word was that their greenhouse ruins expedition had pushed down to Floor B8 recently, or was it B9?
Though the Ox and Horse Squad never publicly disclosed their exact rewards, anyone could guess from the dungeon's difficulty that the payout had to be at least four figures.
Seeing Brother Toilet Cable abandon him without hesitation, Midnight Chicken Slaughter was stunned.
*Damn.*
*Does it have to be that real?*
Looking at his familiar acquaintance, Lao Bai let out a hearty laugh.
"I'm looking to have some gear made. Got anything with serious punch?"
"Serious punch... in what sense? We have hand grenades and replica Panzerfaust rocket launchers—packs a massive wallop!"
"I don't mean disposable explosives. What I mean is," Lao Bai gestured with his hands, "do you have any large-caliber firearms?"
As he spoke, Lao Bai's gaze suddenly fell onto the partially assembled quad autocannon resting in the workshop behind Brother Toilet Cable.
With that single glance, Lao Bai's eyes were glued. He walked straight over and ran his hand along the thick, elongated barrel.
"Holy crap, this has gotta be 20mm, right?!"
Seeing someone take an interest in his craft, Brother Toilet Cable smiled proudly and spoke with confidence.
"A 20mm quad anti-aircraft autocannon! Three types of warheads available. We call it the Sky Meat-Grinder, or 'Ripper' for short!"
The name sounded badass enough.
Lao Bai asked eagerly, "How much?"
Brother Toilet Cable paused, coughing lightly. "That's an NPC order... As for the price tag, one autocannon runs 3,000 silver, and an armor-piercing round is 20 silver, just for reference."
"Holy shit?! 3,000 silver?" Lao Bai's eyes went wide.
A single autocannon cost as much as one and a half sets of Miner Type I exoskeletons!
And the price of the armor-piercing rounds was even more outrageous—one round cost as much as twenty 7mm rounds. Firing three shots was enough to buy a Panzerfaust rocket launcher!
Even though they had cleared four floors over the past few days and conquered the crucial Floor B9, they couldn't just throw their hard-earned money away like that.
Upon hearing the price, Lao Bai immediately dropped the idea of buying one, too embarrassed to even ask for a discount.
Seeing the look on Lao Bai's face, Fang Chang felt a stir of inspiration. He stepped forward, examined the receiver for a moment, and suddenly spoke up.
"Why is this autocannon so expensive?"
Just then, the other mill manager, Brother Levin, walked out from the adjoining workshop.
Hearing Fang Chang's inquiry, he answered casually.
"It's an autocannon; need you even ask? The receiver in front of you alone costs at least 2,000 silver, to say nothing of the barrel out front and the other components."
Fang Chang said thoughtfully, "What if we need a... single-shot autocannon? Without such a complex receiver—we could even switch to a rotating bolt and manual loading."
Brother Toilet Cable and Brother Levin froze in unison.
"Switch to a rotating bolt... bolt-action?"
"Manual loading?"
Seeing that neither of them seemed to catch on, Fang Chang continued.
"My description might've been slightly off. Simply put, strip the full-auto function from this autocannon and make it into a weapon like a bolt-action rifle—one that's easy to hold by hand or mount on the ground—"
"I see what you mean. Ditch the recoil buffer and the cycling receiver, right?"
Brother Levin cut Fang Chang off, stroking his chin with keen interest.
"A gun like that would be crazy heavy, though. The recoil would be insane too—you'd probably have to mount it on a fixed tripod... Are you sure that's even practical?"
At the end of the day, this was an artillery piece, not a rifle.
If they stripped away the shock absorbers and recoil buffers to make a weapon fired from the shoulder, a single shot would likely shatter the shooter's shoulder into splinters.
Unless they shortened the shell's length down to standard bullet proportions.
Though in that case, a 20mm caliber would be somewhat pointless; they might as well switch to 12mm.
Yet, upon hearing Brother Levin's concern, Fang Chang and Lao Bai exchanged a glance, meaningful smiles spreading across both their faces.
It might be tough for an ordinary person.
*But are we ordinary people?*
"You can fit a bipod and a buttstock for me, but skip the fixed tripod."
Lao Bai thumped his fist against the welded chestplate of his exoskeleton, a reassuring grin spreading across his face.
"Don't worry. I can take it!"
Chapter 217